BBD 04.02.21 Pt 5 Loving God More (Classic)

#1 · April 2, 2021, 12:19 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on April 2, 2021, 12:19 pm
Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Classic from 2002

The Burning Bush Devotional

02 April 2021

(During
this Holy Week leading Jesus to and through the cross and to the glorious
Resurrection Day - I am sending a series of devotionals about Loving God More.
There is no better time than this to focus on our relationship with our Lord
and grow in our love for Him.)

Pt 5 Loving God More

You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all
your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. - Mark
12:30.

I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God. - Romans 12:1-2.

We are
very familiar with the phrase “change
of lifestyle.” More and more people are being told by
their doctors that in order to have good health a “change of lifestyle” will be
necessary. For those of us who have experienced heart disease, cancer, and
other serious illnesses we have heard over and over how a good diet, exercise
and reduction of stress will improve our health. But it is necessary that we
develop new healthy habits participating in our new healthy lifestyle not once
every few weeks but on a continuous every day basis.

(Note:
For those of you participating in the 2 Peter challenge, which was extended in the first Loving God More devotional,
you will find a wonderful benefit of immersion into God’s Word. The benefit is
the fruit of the Spirit including temperance or self-control becoming more
evident in your life and resulting in your actually being able to have a
healthy lifestyle.)

Because
our modern society downplays the importance of faithfulness and continual love
for our spouses, we see this carried over into our view of the spiritual. We
are conditioned to believe by the world that we can fall out of love over a
period of time and that this is to be expected. However, it is just as much a
falsehood in the world as it is in the spiritual. Love should not be thought of
as an emotion that eventually will die down and grow cold.

In
order to truly love our wife or our husband requires a continual effort, a
continual focus that is a lifestyle of commitment. Loving God is also a
lifestyle. It involves everyday putting God first and foremost in our lives
just as Jesus says in Matthew 6:33. It is a continual process of giving God the very first part, the very
best part of our lives. This process as with marriage is never finished; it
must be a lifestyle, which requires all of your heart, soul, mind, and
strength. This lifestyle of loving God is as the apostle Paul puts it a “living sacrifice” and it is our “reasonable service” to God.

Let us
not be conformed to the lifestyle of the world. Instead let us be conformed and
transformed to the lifestyle of loving God. Then, we will see everything in our
lives begin to fall into their proper places and we will see clearly God’s will
for us.

Don’t
just talk about loving God - live it!!

Copyright © 2002 - 2021. Ed
Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On
June 8, 1998 the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
Ed Wrather began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of
those first devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent
to prison facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush website:

www.theburningbush.net

The Burning Bush websites are
celebrating 23 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the
Burning Bush Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to subscribers
across the world. At one time there were 18,000 subscribers in more than 70
countries to the devotional but that has now shrunk to around 9,000.

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right-hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the Devotionals at
the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of the home page.
Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Please pray for God to touch and
bring about His will in these lives: Caleb Freeman, Buck & Barbara Wright,
Gwen P., James Perkins and his wife, Vonnie, Evi Porter, Addison, JoJo, Bailey
and Nicky; Ralph and De Chapman; Hilary; Cody Stahlman; Patsy M.; Zoe Marx; Brandy
and Jadyn’s Dad; Patricia Rohman and Lisa Butler who has had a stroke; Scott
J.; Clayton T. and Sarah; and Shonda H. (fighting cancer).

Please pray for the coronavirus
COVID19 pandemic to come to an end. Pray for treatments and a cure for the
virus to be rapidly found and deployed. Pray for all those afflicted to be
healed and for our leaders to have supernatural wisdom and ability to lead us
through this pandemic.

Please pray for an end to the
rioting, looting, wanton destruction, and the racial hatred in the USA and that
it will be replaced with peace and love. May God help the USA! Many prayer
needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page. You
can also post your prayer requests there (Of
course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me. 03.18.18 I accepted the call to be the pastor of Fairview
Baptist Church in Elk City, Oklahoma. Please pray for me and for this church.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com

If you enjoy the devotional please
recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time
constraints the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by
sending a blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

--

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org

Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>

Classic from 2002

The Burning Bush Devotional

02 April 2021

(During
this Holy Week leading Jesus to and through the cross and to the glorious
Resurrection Day - I am sending a series of devotionals about Loving God More.
There is no better time than this to focus on our relationship with our Lord
and grow in our love for Him.)

Pt 5 Loving God More

You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all
your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. - Mark
12:30.

I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God. - Romans 12:1-2.

We are
very familiar with the phrase “change
of lifestyle.” More and more people are being told by
their doctors that in order to have good health a “change of lifestyle” will be
necessary. For those of us who have experienced heart disease, cancer, and
other serious illnesses we have heard over and over how a good diet, exercise
and reduction of stress will improve our health. But it is necessary that we
develop new healthy habits participating in our new healthy lifestyle not once
every few weeks but on a continuous every day basis.

(Note:
For those of you participating in the 2 Peter challenge, which was extended in the first Loving God More devotional,
you will find a wonderful benefit of immersion into God’s Word. The benefit is
the fruit of the Spirit including temperance or self-control becoming more
evident in your life and resulting in your actually being able to have a
healthy lifestyle.)

Because
our modern society downplays the importance of faithfulness and continual love
for our spouses, we see this carried over into our view of the spiritual. We
are conditioned to believe by the world that we can fall out of love over a
period of time and that this is to be expected. However, it is just as much a
falsehood in the world as it is in the spiritual. Love should not be thought of
as an emotion that eventually will die down and grow cold.

In
order to truly love our wife or our husband requires a continual effort, a
continual focus that is a lifestyle of commitment. Loving God is also a
lifestyle. It involves everyday putting God first and foremost in our lives
just as Jesus says in Matthew 6:33. It is a continual process of giving God the very first part, the very
best part of our lives. This process as with marriage is never finished; it
must be a lifestyle, which requires all of your heart, soul, mind, and
strength. This lifestyle of loving God is as the apostle Paul puts it a “living sacrifice” and it is our “reasonable service” to God.

Let us
not be conformed to the lifestyle of the world. Instead let us be conformed and
transformed to the lifestyle of loving God. Then, we will see everything in our
lives begin to fall into their proper places and we will see clearly God’s will
for us.

Don’t
just talk about loving God - live it!!

Copyright © 2002 - 2021. Ed
Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On
June 8, 1998 the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
Ed Wrather began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of
those first devotionals was primarily through the Burning Bush Newsletter sent
to prison facilities throughout the United States and Canada.

Visit the
Burning Bush website:

http://www.theburningbush.net

The Burning Bush websites are
celebrating 23 years online since January 31, 1998. Since June 8, 1998 the
Burning Bush Devotional has been spreading the truth of God's Word to subscribers
across the world. At one time there were 18,000 subscribers in more than 70
countries to the devotional but that has now shrunk to around 9,000.

You can leave comments/feedback
about the devotionals at http://www.theburningbush.net.

There is a translation tool on
theburningbush.net website in the top right-hand corner of all of the pages.

Check out the Scripture Index being constructed for the Devotionals at
the Burning Bush website. The Links are in about the middle of the home page.
Topics for each devotional are now being added to the Index.

Please pray for God to touch and
bring about His will in these lives: Caleb Freeman, Buck & Barbara Wright,
Gwen P., James Perkins and his wife, Vonnie, Evi Porter, Addison, JoJo, Bailey
and Nicky; Ralph and De Chapman; Hilary; Cody Stahlman; Patsy M.; Zoe Marx; Brandy
and Jadyn’s Dad; Patricia Rohman and Lisa Butler who has had a stroke; Scott
J.; Clayton T. and Sarah; and Shonda H. (fighting cancer).

Please pray for the coronavirus
COVID19 pandemic to come to an end. Pray for treatments and a cure for the
virus to be rapidly found and deployed. Pray for all those afflicted to be
healed and for our leaders to have supernatural wisdom and ability to lead us
through this pandemic.

Please pray for an end to the
rioting, looting, wanton destruction, and the racial hatred in the USA and that
it will be replaced with peace and love. May God help the USA! Many prayer
needs are posted at the Burning Bush website on the Prayer Request page. You
can also post your prayer requests there (Of
course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray for me. 03.18.18 I accepted the call to be the pastor of Fairview
Baptist Church in Elk City, Oklahoma. Please pray for me and for this church.).

You can contact Ed Wrather at
theburningbushdevotional@gmail.com

If you enjoy the devotional please
recommend it to your friends. They may subscribe by sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-join@welovegod.org

There is a complete devotional
archive at the old Burning Bush website. Here is the URL: http://www.theburningbush.org/DevotionalArchive.html.

Devotion vs Devotional: We do our
devotions, we read devotionals.

You can unsubscribe to the burningbushdevo devotional group by
sending a blank email to burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email.

You may subscribe to the html text group (Because of time
constraints the devotional is only being sent now in html format) by sending a
blank email to burningbushhtml-join@welovegod.org and you may unsubscribe by
sending a blank email to burningbushhtml-leave@welovegod.org and then respond
to the confirmation email. If the link does not work, copy and paste the link.

To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: burningbushdevo-leave@welovegod.org